A biography for Maajid Nawazhasn’t been written yet.
“No idea is above scrutiny and no people are beneath dignity.”
“As I went between the Islamic Society in my college and university, the mosque, the halal takeaway, and visited the homes of my male Muslim friends, it was entirely possible for me to get through my day without interacting in any meaningful way with a single non-Muslim.”
“The conclusion that I have come to is that actually, no religion, whether it's Islam, Christianity or any idea based on scripture or texts, is a religion of 'anything,' really.”
“I really didn't grow up religious, and I didn't grow up acknowledging my Muslim identity. For me, I was a British Pakistani.”
“All my friends were non-Muslims. I actually knew very little about Islam - like, very little.”
“Before someone can change his ideas, he has to open his heart.”
“Academic institutions in Britain have been infiltrated for years by dangerous theocratic fantasists. I should know: I was one of them.”
“The University of Westminster is well known for being a hotbed of extremist activity.”
“Imams must ridicule Caliphate fantasies. Exchange programmes between Muslim-only schools and non-Muslim-majority schools should be initiated. Community-based debates around these themes must no longer be shut down from fear of offence.”
“I was, by the way - I'm an Essex lad, born and raised in Essex in the U.K.”
“The way to tackle Muslimphobia is to tackle prejudice against Muslims. What it is not is to pretend that Islamist extremism does not exist.”
“Chance explorations on search engines do not 'accidentally' lead users to extremist websites.”
“Expressing myself through language was always something that I had had to learn to do more so than others.”
“De-radicalisation begins by breaking down the logic which once seemed unassailable and rethinking what you are fighting for and why. That is hard to do when Islamists and Islamophobes feed off each other's hateful cliches.”
“Wherever I've been, I've left people who joined Hizb ut-Tahrir. I have to make amends. What I did was damaging to British society and the world at large.”
“Non-violent extremism is essentially the increase of intolerant and bigoted demands made by groups seeking to dominate society.”
“Islamism is an ideology that seeks to impose any version of Islam over society.”
“The positive is I'm delighted at the way the Liberal Democrats as a party have supported me and the way in which the work I'm doing, through the Liberal Democrats, has abled to broaden some of the work I work on.”
“Poking fun at other people's beliefs, while it may seem frivolous and offensive, is a non-negotiable right. It is a principle that underpins free speech, the basis for progress.”
“The fact is that there is a serious problem of extremism with minority groups within Muslim communities.”